Gina McCarthy's nomination in doubt, angering Democrats

President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency is in jeopardy after Republicans formed a united front Thursday to deny her a vote in committee.

Democrats erupted in frustration at the GOP “obstructionism” and vowed to find a way to push Gina McCarthy’s nomination through the Environment and Public Works Committee, despite the last-minute Republican boycott of the vote.

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Cardin, Sanders rail GOP 'obstructionism'

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But even then, McCarthy could still face a filibuster on the Senate floor — and won’t have the 60 votes she needs, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told his Democratic allies Thursday morning. He pleaded with the Senate to finally heed liberals’ pleas to change the filibuster rules so that nominees can be confirmed through majority vote.

“If we bring this nomination to the floor and there’s a request for 60 votes — which we are not going to get — I think it is time for the Democratic leadership to do what the American people want, and that is to have a majority rule in the United States Senate,” Sanders said in a committee room bereft of GOP members.

“You know why some of us are going to be in favor of reforming the rules of the Senate?” Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) asked. “It’s because of abuses like this.”

“I assure you, Mr. Perez will have his day in the Senate,” Reid said. “I assure you Ms. McCarthy will have her day in the Senate. And I will do all that I can to ensure these highly qualified nominees are confirmed.”

A White House official called on the Republicans to let McCarthy come up for a vote. “It is unfortunate that some Republicans have chosen to play politics with this nomination,” the official said.

Republican leaders were unmoved, though, saying the Obama administration deserves blame for the impasse by refusing to fully answer questions that GOP nominees have posed about McCarthy and EPA. They include questions about the “underlying data used to justify EPA’s job-killing regulations,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement to POLITICO.

“It should come as no surprise that the Obama administration continues to stonewall reasonable information requests from Republicans on the EPW Committee, information that is crucial to their advise-and-consent role in this nomination,” McConnell said.

When asked whether the impasse could jeopardize McCarthy’s ability to earn 60 votes in the full Senate, a McConnell spokesman said, “Let’s see how the Obama administration responds to this reasonable request.”

Committee ranking member David Vitter (R-La.) announced the boycott by all eight GOP members around 8:30 a.m., saying Republicans would deny the panel a quorum because McCarthy and the EPA hadn’t provided answers to the questions they had posed.